In an ongoing adoptive transfer clinical trial, cancer patients received autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) that were transduced with nucleic acids encoding a T cell receptor (TCR) specific for the melanoma antigen MART-1. Thus far, two out of 17 patients have demonstrated an objective clinical response (Morgan et al., Sciencexpress, e-publication Aug. 31, 2006). The results of this clinical trial demonstrate that normal autologous T lymphocytes, transduced ex vivo with anti-cancer antigen TCR genes and reinfused in cancer patients, can persist and express the transgene long term in vivo and mediate durable regression of large established tumors. However, approaches to increase the expression and function of the transgene are still needed.
There remains a need in the art for modified TCRs for use in treating patients with disease. The invention provides such T cell receptors and methods of treating cancer.